Why I Oughta...

Yesterday, I updated my annual Christmas Tree Tracking series with a post about our Family Room tree - a Fraser Fir from Wisconsin .   This post documents the smaller tree in our front room - the Green Room that has far less ornaments.  It is in the front window and is the one that's visible from the outside.  This is...Nat's tree.  The other one is for the rest of us.   I've been tracking these trees on the blog over the years. This is the 19th tree that I've documented. Here's our 2022 Green Room tree - a smaller, but properly-scaled Fraser Fir Here's our 2022 Family Room tree - a perfectly shaped Fraser Fir Here's our 2021 Green Room tree  - about 6' tall.  Here's our 2021 Family Room Tree  - between 8' and 9' tall and picture-perfect shape. Here's our 2020 Green Room tree  - about 6' tall in total and perfectly shaped. Here's our 2020 Family Room tree - about 8' tall in total , but really nicely shaped. Here's our 20...

Like we've done since we moved in to our house here in Downers, we put up two Christmas trees this year.  One in the front room - a smaller tree.  And a larger one in the family room.  And, like the past few years, we drove up to Wisconsin to get them.  We went back to Evergreen Acres (same place as lats year and paid the same $75 per tree ). Below is a photo of our family room tree for 2022.  It is, like most years, a Fraser Fir.   I've been tracking these trees on the blog over the years. This is the 18th tree that I've documented with the front room one from last year being the most recent (#17) .   Here's our 2021 Green Room tree - about 6' tall.  Here's our 2021 Family Room Tree - between 8' and 9' tall and picture-perfect shape. Here's our 2020 Green Room tree - about 6' tall in total and perfectly shaped. Here's our 2020 Family Room tree - about 8' tall in total , but really nicely shaped. Here's our 2019 Family Room tree t...

With the holidays (officially) winding down in our house and the decorations being tucked back into their tubs and boxes, I wanted to include in my Web diary a photo of our front yard Christmas tree and our blow mold Santa and three reindeer .  I've done this in the past including a similar photo last year featuring the tree and Santa/reindeers .  The front yard tree *is* a thing in Downers Grove, but that's not why we do it.  We do it because of our time on Indiana Street in Elmhurst .  We really loved that tradition, so we've kept it despite moving to Downers.  This is the 11th year of documenting our front yard Christmas tree tradition - and 12th year of a front-yard photo.  2019 post was only of the blowmolds , so I'm not counting that in the 11 years.  Here's our 2021 front yard tree featuring a fresh snow covering our tree and Santa/reindeer. Here's our 2020 front yard Christmas tree with Santa and his reindeer .  Here's a photo of our Santa...

I've mentioned that we've now traveled up to Wisconsin the past couple of years to cut down Christmas trees after the place we had been going down in Braidwood stopped being fun.  The farm is called Evergreen Acres and they opened in 1975 .  It is a great place.  We bought both of our trees there this year - Family Room and Green Room trees.   When you check out of Evergreen Acres, they give you a little business card that serves as your receipt.  If you know me at all, you know that I'm likely to complain about the costs of things.  I'm pretty sure I live in a fantasy world where I think things and services should cost way less than they should.  We've been looking for a fridge for our basement for a year.  I have a certain price in my mind that I want to hit - in order to buy a fridge.  And, we have a particular format (French door, if you must know) that we (I) want.  I've shopped it.  And shopped it.  And, haven't fo...

Below is a photo of our second Christmas tree - the Green Room Tree - that is now standing tall and proud in our front room. This is the tree you see from the street and the one that is full of white lights and vintage ornaments.  Otherwise known (at least around here) as Nat's 'fancy tree'.    Over the weekend, I shared a photo of our Family Room tree .  This one is smaller, less girth-y and is 18" or so shorter.  But, just like the one in the family room has a lovely shape and, similarly, came from Wisconsin. I've been tracking these trees on the blog over the years. This is the 17th tree that I've documented and is the second one of this season (2021). Here's our 2021 Green Room Tree . Just like in years past:  a little smaller than Family Room.  But just about perfect-looking.   Here's our 2021 Family Room Tree - between 8' and 9' tall and picture-perfect shape. Here's our 2020 Green Room tree - about 6' tall in total and perfect...

 On Monday, I posted a photo of our family room Christmas tree .  That was the larger of our two trees from Evergreen Acres in Wisconsin.   I said at the time that the tree was the 13th Christmas tree that I've posted about over the years here on the blog and the fourth Family Room tree in our house in Downers - that we moved into in the Summer of 2017. But, that was wrong.  I forgot to include our Green Room Tree in 2019 to my list.  So, technically, Monday's tree was the 14th.  And this tree makes 15. For our new house, we've been here for four Christmas seasons: 2017, 2018, 2019 and now 2020.   In each of those three previous years - and again this year - we have a second tree in our house - a smaller tree in the front room.  Or, Green room.  Or, Library.  Depends on who describes it.   This year - like previous - we cut down a smaller Fraser Fir and Nat decorated it with vintage ornaments in our front window.  Her...

 Earlier this year, I posted about the new (to us) Christmas Tree Farm up in Wisconsin called Evergreen Acres and how we cut down a handsome pair of trees and brought them home.  One of those trees has gone in our front green room (more on that in a separate post) and the other one ended up in our Krinner XXL tree stand in our family room.  Here it is below: The tree is about two feet shy of our ceiling, so let's call it eight feet tall.  It is a lovely tree that is also drinking a TON of water - all the way up until now (mid-December).   Here's some of our previous Christmas trees from over the years. Here's our 2019 Family Room tree that we bought from Wannemakers . Was taller than 2020's tree. Here's our 2019 (small) Green Room Tree . Here's our 2018 Family Room Tree . Here's v1 of our 2017 tree - our first in Downers Grove. Here's v2 of our 2017 tree - the one in our family room . Here's our 2016 tree - our last one in Elmhurst . Here's o...

  I've been going with Nat and her family to cut down Christmas trees the day after Thanksgiving for 15 years.  And in that time, we've gone to a place down in Wilmington called Tammen Treeberry Farm.  When we moved into our house in Downers, Nat decided to have two trees inside.  One smaller one for the front room and a larger one for our family room.  That worked fine in theory.  But, what we found down at Tammen Tree farm was that they had a good selection of small and medium-sized trees.  However, they lacked in what I'd call "larger" trees.   That meant that last year, we called an audible and ONLY bought one tree down at Tammen.  We ended up buying the second - "larger" tree that was pre-cut from Wannemaker's in town here .  And with that decision, we paid *double* what they were charging down at Tammen, but we had a really lovely tree.   This year, Nat's folks decided to try something new.  A trip to a whole ne...

This is the second Christmas Tree in our house this season.  I covered the first one - in our family room - here on the blog .  This one is in the green room.  Or 'quiet room'.  Or library.  Or front room.  Whatever you'd like to call it.  (We call it all of those things, btw.) This is a small Fraser Fir and this is very much Nat's tree.  I put it in the stand and keep it watered.  But that's it.  She dressed it up with ornaments and her special spherical lights.  And then keeps this room as her room for the season.  It is a special place at night when the lights shine and warm up the room.  There's a little couch on the opposite wall that you can (if you're invited!) sit and take it all in. Compare the tree to last year .  The carpet is new, but the tree is just about the same size.  Looks great.  As I mentioned in the post about our Family Room tree , I've posted about our Christmas trees since 20...

Like the past few years (and since we moved to Downers Grove), we have two Christmas trees up in our house for the holiday season.  Nat is in charge of the decorating of our house and she does a really amazing job creating an environment that balances nostalgia (with some vintage things that we've both collected over time), personal touches (lots of kid-made things around) and new, joyful decorations.  I'm one of the benefactors of her work and thoughtfulness with Christmas decorations - along with the kids - and grateful for her effort to create a "place" that will be full of memories and meaning for the rest of their/our lives.   But, like a lot of things in life, Nat doesn't over-do-it.  In fact, I think we've/she has managed to peel back a bit in the past few years.  Thinning out some of our Santas that we've bought at various estate/garage sales.  Dropping off decorations at GoodWill for another family to use.  And just trying to...

Every year since we've been married, Nat and I (and the kids) have participated in a Moran Family tradition:  heading down to Braidwood to the Tammen Tree Farm to cut down a Christmas tree .  Last year's version can be found here.   And here .    What's that you say?  That's two different blog posts with two different trees?  Yep.  Like her Mother, Natalie likes to put up two trees.  One larger one in the family room and another smaller one in our front room. Our trips down to the Tammen Tree farm are a lot of fun.  We pack into a couple of cars and drive around their farm to try to find everyone a tree.  We buy one (or starting when we moved into our new house - two), Nat's folks buy a couple and her sister buys one (I think).  Driving around is fun, looking for the perfect tree isn't so much fun.   Why?  Because we like Fraser Firs and I want a 'big' tree for the family room tree.  Tammen has a TON - ...

Yesterday, I posted a long post that covered the incredible Dragon Tree, the Marilyn Monroe movie 'Some Like It Hot' and the upcoming renovations at the Hotel Del Coronado.  Go read that post .  Great.  Now you're back?  Today, I'm posting about another tree at The Del - this tall tree you see above.  It is a really large Norfolk Island Pine tree.  And it sits to the right (as you face the front door of The Del) along a sidewalk that takes you out to Orange Avenue. As you walk by the tree, you'll notice this marker below: It reads: Hotel Del Coronado Christmas Tree Here stands the world's first electrically-lighted outdoor Christmas tree, unveiled at Hotel del Coronado December 24, 1904. I stopped and read the marker and was all like: I don't know why, but this feels like a *wow* moment to me.  The idea of people taking the time to hang lights on trees outdoors for Christmas is so accepted today that it is crazy to consider that th...

We have a room in our #newoldfarmhouse that goes by a bunch of names:  the front room, library, green room, quiet room.  It is your normal formal(ish) living room.  But...Whatever we call it, it also is home to our more 'formal' Christmas tree.  And is a nice little tree to experience. I posted a photo of our Family Room tree yesterday.  That tree is big, gangly, colorful and full of ornaments of various shape and kind.  This tree?  It is understated.  Short (like seven feet tall), white lights, nicely-shaped and has all of our vintage Christmas ornaments on it.  It fits perfectly into our Green Room.  Like last year, it is a Fraser Fir and glows from the front window .  I've posted about our Christmas trees since 2010 including yesterday's tree. Here's our family room tree from this year (2018) that I posted yesterday . Here's v1 of our 2017 tree - our first in Downers Grove.  Here's v2 of our 2017 tree - the one ...

Oh Christmas Tree.  Oh Fraser Fir Tree.  This year, we went back to the Fraser Fir for our family room tree.  Or at least we *think* it is a Fraser Fir.  This tree is just about ten feet tall and just barely clears our ceiling.   Here (below) is a photo of me installing the tree into the stand (the Krinner XXL stand ) to give you a sense for the scale of the height of this tree.  Just like last year , our Christmas tree sits in our Family Room - in a corner near our patio doors.  Also like last year, we have two trees this year again, but I'll get to the other tree in a separate post.  I've posted about our Christmas trees since 2010. Here's v1 of our 2017 tree - our first in Downers Grove. Here's v2 of our 2017 tree - the one in our family room . Here's our 2016 tree - our last one in Elmhurst . Here's our tiny tree from 2015 at Equation Boy/Man and Vic's house . Here's the tree in 2014 at our old house . Here's the post of our...

It is not all gardening wins for me this Summer.  Sometimes the losses are just as important. I celebrated the planting of this small Fraser Fir in our backyard just 10 weeks ago at the beginning of June.  It was in a good spot in the yard that had plenty of water and it was taking off.  There was a run of new, soft growth that came on the tree in July, then all of a sudden, it started to go brown.  From the top down.  Now, two weeks after I noticed the first bit of brown, the whole thing is gone.  Sad stuff. Not sure if it was water.  Or location.  Or something else like a disease.  It went really fast.  And the shot of new growth followed directly by the brown-out makes me wonder if it was disease-related? This was the 22nd tree that we had planted in our backyard as part of the reforestation process and the second evergreen.  We've added a Hemlock since, though.  I bought this one at Home Depot who has a 1 year wa...

The reforestation continues.  When we bought the lot in Downers Grove, we knew we were going to have to take down some trees due to construction.  The Village of Downers Grove forced us to invest in quite a bit of infrastructure in the name of water management and one of the outcomes of that (digging and placing a big basin, connecting it down to the sewers, etc) was that we took down eight to ten pretty mature trees. Because of that fact and the idea that we want a private, good looking property, we've undertaken quite a bit of planting of trees in what I'm calling a 'reforestation'.  In the first year (2017), we planted exclusively deciduous trees.  Nine total.  We ended up losing three of them, so that's a net of six.  This year (2018), we've planted twelve in total.  That's 21 total, but only one of them (the weeping cedar) is a conifer or evergreen. Number 22 changes that.  Above, you'll see our first traditional evergreen - a Fraser F...

Last week, I posted a photo of one of Christmas trees that we had up in our green room .  As I mentioned in that post, this year we had two inside Christmas trees.  Both bought from the Tammen Treeberry Farm down in Braidwood . This tree wasn't a great looking tree, but it survived remarkably well in terms of staying green and alive.  You can kind of tell it is a bit off center and maybe not super symmetrical, but that's because we couldn't settle on a tree out in the tree farm.  We've historically preferred Fraser Firs - and that's what we had in the Green Room this year - but we've also had Douglas Firs in the past too.  In 2015, our first Christmas not in our own house, we had a Douglas .  This tree, is a Douglas.  And it was not a great tree for lights and ornaments.  The needles were consolidated towards the very extremities.  That made it tricky and also made the tree look sparse at times.   We ended up with a Douglas ...

Every year for the past eight years, I've been documenting our Christmas trees here on the blog and it has been fun to look back.  I'm not talking about the front yard trees , however.  Sure, I've been doing that , too, but this post is about the trees we're had in our house.    Here's the post showing our tree in 2016 - our last one in Equation Boy/Man's house .  Above you see something that I've labeled V1 of our tree, because this year, we had two trees.  This one, in the green room, is a Fraser Fir and is adorned with vintage glass ornaments that we've acquired over the years at garage sales and estate sales.  Also has an angel that we scored at a yard sale up in Michigan.  I'll post a photo of the other tree from our Family Room later this week. Here's our 2016 tree - our last one in Elmhurst . Here's our tiny tree from 2015 at Equation Boy/Man and Vic's house . Here's the tree in 2014 at our old house . Here's the post...

There are a few things in my world that I geek out about:  Disney World.  Pizza.  And Christmas.  I like everything about Christmas and even have a tub of shirts that we drag out that contains *just* Christmas shirts.  Part of one of our Christmas traditions is going down to the Tammen Treeberry Farm and cutting down a tree for our house.  Here's a post from 2010 that talks about that trip .  I also included the Tammen Treeberry Farm on my "favorite holiday things" list of 2010 and 2012 .   This year, we cut down two trees for our #newoldfarmhouse - which is one more than we normally do.  And that meant that we needed a second tree stand.  I went to the Wirecutter - where they (of course) have a piece comparing various stands .  They recommended the Krinner Tree Genie XXL .  They bill it thusly : A unique design makes clamping a tree in the Krinner far easier than any kind of stand we’ve found. The Krinner grips...

We brought just a little bit of Indiana Street with us to Downers.  Over the weekend, we put up our trees inside the house, but we also went to Menards and bought a small 5' Fraser Fir to put up in our front yard.  Just like we did on Indiana Street.  Starting with our first Christmas in Elmhurst (in our first house), we participated in the tradition of erecting a 'front yard tree' along with our neighbors.  My sister Vic told us about the tradition before we moved in and sure enough, we fell in love.  The street(s) always looked so great when all of the homes had a uniquely-styled and lighted tree.  You can see the C7 bulbs I put on our tree this year out in front of our #newoldfarmhouse.  Nat did a great job doing 'classy' decorations on the porch with garland and lights.  And wreaths in the windows that you can see above.  So, while we have moved out of Indiana Street, we still wanted to bring some of that tradition with us in our...